Assessment of intermediate Maturing Maize Inbred Lines under Low Soil Nitrogen for Hybrid Production

Abstract

Evaluation of maize inbred lines bred for low soil Nitrogen (low N) environments underlay identification and selection of parental lines for developing hybrids that would combine stability with high yield potential across stress and non-stress conditions. The main objective of this study was to identify high yielding intermediate maturing inbred lines based on multiple traits under optimal and Low-N and for hybrid development and population improvement. 36 inbred lines were evaluated under low (30 kg/ha) and optimum (90 kg/ha) N environments at three locations for 2 years in Ghana. The inbred lines exhibited high levels of genetic variability for grain yield (GY) and other agronomic traits desirable for Low - N tolerance. The results revealed that plant height (PHT), ear height (EHT), ears per plant (EPP) and chlorophyll content(CC) had direct effect on GY whiles days to anthesis (DA), days to silking (DS), anthesis silking interval (ASI) had negative direct effect on GY under low N. Traits with high direct effect could be used as indirect selection for improved grain yield under low N. The most promising inbreds identified were TZL Comp 3, Zm523B-29-2-1-1B*6, CZL 068, CLWN 247 and CML 4444. These are likely to contribute favorable alleles for grain yield to their progenies could be the best choice of parental lines for developing hybrids with maximum expression of tolerance to Low-N